Mission Baroque

It was about building a different society, a kind of utopia, with education, self-sustainability—and of course with music, which was the way the Jesuits evangelized.
—Rev. Piotr Nawrot, Bolivia

If you are going to evangelize me, then come,
as the Jesuits did, with music in your hands,
the path to God scored and metered by the dance
of a baton. Seduce me with melody, and I might
help you raise a church, carry the weight
of crossbeam and doorpost for your odd god.
Hand me a bow and teach me fingerings so that,
when history calls you elsewhere (as it tends to),
I am left with the heart of the matter, something mine.
We will make small naves of cedar and mahogany
to sound our souls and rescue staves from termites
and from damp. Our children’s children will carry
instruments through town and home again
to play for us at night. You will have fallen
into the twilight of your greed while we,
for as long as we can, will persevere against it,
guardian orchestras, enchantment’s disciples.